3 Ways the Digital Age Can Transform Your Marketing Process
Believe it or not, there was a time when we didn’t have smartphones. The only phones we had were the ones connected to the wall in our house. These didn’t have touch screens and you couldn’t use social media. Some households had computers, but dial-up made it impossible to use the phone and the Internet at the same time.
We’ve come a long way since house phones and dial-up. Today, we‘re about tagging, sharing and liking content all on the go. We pay for data and ask every employer, bartender or friend for the Wi-Fi password.
The digital age is the new frontier for marketers. The opportunities are endless. With the explosion of social networking, digital transformation is vital for any company to survive. New marketing tools, philosophies and channels designed to interact and engage your audience are instantly available.
So, how has this changed the marketing process and how can we take advantage of these new opportunities? Here are three ways the digital age has transformed the marketing process.
Social Media
When social media first became popular, we used it to digitally interact with our friends and comment on each other’s vacation photos. Now we use it for just about everything. Networks like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat enable us to share and promote our brand. Around 97 percent of online adults ages 16–64 say they’ve visited or used social media in the last month. Social media gives us the opportunity to market our brand to a large audience in a free and easy way.
Mobile Accessibility
I use my smartphone for just about everything. I use it as an alarm clock. I use it to deposit my paycheck. I use it for directions. I even use it to post videos of my dog snoring obnoxiously loud. My smartphone is almost always with me and I’m not alone (okay, maybe in the snoring dog category, but not the others). Eighty percent of Internet users globally visit/use social networks on their mobile devices and around one in every three minutes spent online is devoted to social networking and messaging. With all of this information right at our fingertips, it’s necessary we utilize these resources to ensure our product, service or brand is accessible to consumers.
Consumers Have the Power
There used to be a time when a salesman had to physically interact with a consumer in order to make a sale. In the digital age, the buying process has evolved and given the consumer all the power. Social media and the Internet allow marketers to produce engaging content that will attract consumers and ultimately make the buying process easier. If we produce quality content and strategically promote it, without being pushy, then we can attract consumers and meet our business goals. It’s like the movie Field of Dreams, when Kevin Costner is walking through a cornfield and he hears a voice say, “If you build it, he will come.” He builds the baseball field and Shoeless Joe Jackson appears out of nowhere. Well, that’s comparable to today’s marketing process. Create quality content, promote it strategically through different channels and consumers will come. It’s called inbound marketing and it’s redefining the old traditional marketing process.
With all the resources us marketers have today, it’s our duty to build an online presence. Consumers access content everywhere and anywhere, through multiple channels. In an age where everything is accessible through a click of a mouse or the touch of a button, why wouldn’t a marketer take advantage of these powerful resources?
